


Snowmelt

by Ael_tRlailiiu



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Conversations, Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-12
Updated: 2014-12-12
Packaged: 2018-03-01 05:16:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2761013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ael_tRlailiiu/pseuds/Ael_tRlailiiu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A pleasant conversational bit about their relationships with Emma, written just after 4.10 but set after whatever is going to happen in 4.11.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snowmelt

The dust had settled, the snow melted. Killian found himself at loose ends for an hour while Emma and her father attended to matters at the station. He considered Granny’s, passed it by, and ended up at the waterfront out of habit. A few people came and went; one of them approached with purposeful stride.

"Madame Mayor. To what do I owe the honor?"

"No need to be formal." Mary Margaret settled on the bench next to him, pulled her wool coat snug and looked at the harbor. "Nice to see it without the ice wall, isn’t it."

"Indeed." She didn’t have the baby prince in tow, so this was presumably serious. He doubted that Emma would send her mother to check up on him just because he was out of her sight for a few minutes. He was fine, anyway, and she knew that; he just wanted a bit of quiet to sort it all through.

"Do you remember the day we met?" Mary Margaret said.

"Vividly."

"I didn’t much care for you. You probably noticed."

"You made you opinion clear, yes." He refrained from mentioning that he sometimes missed taunting her; she made such a delightful target. Bad form to bait one’s… _girlfriend’s_ mother, and what a remarkably un-euphonious word for such a wonderful reality. Emma had called him a great many names in between kissing him senseless. He didn’t mind a one of them.

"Well, I am her mother, and I saw the way you looked at her. You have a bit of a reputation. Emma’s a very attractive woman."

"She’s considerably more than that." A sharp note found its way into his voice.

"And did you think that at the time?" Mary Margaret smiled.

"I had an inkling, yes." He hadn’t called her brilliant as idle flattery.

"Well, then you were doing better than I was. I’ve failed Emma, quite a lot." She raised a hand to keep him from speaking. "And I’m not fishing for compliments. There’s always a reason, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t do it. She’s been through so much. But even with all of that, Emma is… ever since I met her, back under the curse — she has such an amazing capacity for love. I look at her now, and it’s like watching an entire garden open up at once. And you are a part of that. You understand her in ways I never will, and that’s a little hard for me."

He couldn’t exactly argue. Hearing Emma Swan say that she loved him would have been the best moment of his life if she hadn’t said it again, later and more privately and with a little distance from nearly dying.

"I guess that’s a long way of saying that maybe I’ll spend seventeen more years protecting her from things she doesn’t need protecting from, but I hope not." She stood up. "Welcome to the family. We’re a little strange."

"I can’t say I noticed anything of the sort."

"Why Captain, I do believe that’s a fib." Mary Margaret grinned at him and adjusted her hat. "By the way. Belle said a bunch of the Lost Boys got into the library and scrambled the books as a prank. They didn’t even have the excuse of being cursed at the time. She could use some help straightening the place out."

Killian started to say that he was probably the last person on this or any other world Belle wanted to see right now, barring one perhaps, but Mary Margaret was a better ruler than that.

"Perhaps I’ll stop in, then." He hesitated. "Thank you, milady."

"You are quite welcome."


End file.
